Peaches and Pixie Geldof, Norman Foster and everyday Londoners who have had a profound impact on the capital will be the focus of a new exhibition of artworks by students from Central St Martins this summer.

Over 100 fine art students from the college were invited by student accommodation provider Unite to participate, and five pieces were commissioned. They will be exhibited in Blithehale Court, Bethnal Green, to celebrate the opening of seven new Unite properties across London this year.

Ewan MacFarlaneNorman Foster
Ewan said: “Instead of painting the Gherkin itself I thought it more interesting to paint its architect Lord Foster. However I wanted to make reference to the fantastic structural planning that made the building possible. The result is a painting made up of brush strokes but within each stroke a number of shades.”

Rose Stuart SmithPhyllis PearlsallPhyllis Pearlsall created the London’s first A to Z of streets by painstakingly walking every street until she had mapped them all. Rose said: “As maps become available on mobile phones and sat-nav, the A-Z may soon fall out of use and Phyllis’ story will be lost, so I was excited to be given this opportunity to make work that commemorates her. She was, like me, a painter so it seemed fitting that the work should also be a painting.”

Charles DrinkwaterClara Grant
Charles’ work remembers The Bundle Woman of Bow who created farthing bundles of toys to give to poor children in the early 1900s. Charles said: “I chose Clara Grant because of her amazing actions. For a single woman, during that time, to make such a difference to children’s lives was remarkable. It reaffirms my belief in human kindness.”

Sue Kemp

Inspirational Londoners
Sue said: “The type of people that I think inspire students, are individuals they can relate to, everyday, ordinary people who through creativity, self-belief and hard work have achieved amazing things. I consider the people I have used in my work to be inspirational Londoners.”

Phoebe MitchellPeaches and Pixie Geldof

Phoebe said: “The infamous daughters of rocker Bob Geldof and the late Paula Yates are the epitome of cool, trashy, teenage hedonism. They may not be saving the world, or carving out an enviable career…yet, but they can inspire us to enjoy ourselves and to take advantage of our youth.”

A selection of photographs from the Travelling Light exhibition, which opened on Friday at the WW Gallery in Hackney, east London.

Friendships (2008) by Infinity Bruce

Anywhere! Anywhere! (2009) by Valerie Jolie

Midriff – Version 1 (2009) by Ingrid Berthon-Moine

Dust (2009) by Phil Illingworth

Nameless (2009) by Eva Lis

How to use a life vest (2007) by Edith Dakovic

Birth of Venus (2009) by Chiara Williams

Artist and Studio to Go (2009) by Natasha Bailey

Turns out the artwork embroiled in bureaucratic battle (see previous post) was by Sri Lankan born artist Roma Tearne. She wanted to wrap a single black or crimson cloth over the eyes of the statue of Eros in Piccadilly, London, but the people in charge refused to give the gallery permission.

Travelling Light is an upcoming Venice Biennale art exhibition organised by a group of women from London’s East End: Sophie Wilson of Pharos Gallery, Chiara Williams and Debra Wilson of WW Gallery. The brief said all artworks had to be posted to the London venue for the first leg of the exhibition before they could continue on their travels to Venice, so the artists (among them Roma Tearne, Kate Davis, Maria Chevska and Oona Grimes) had to work to certain size and weight restrictions.

The travelling exhibition, which will showcase a total of 58 artists, is set to open in London and end up in Venice for the opening week of the Biennale. However, one of the submissions requires public interaction, and Westminster Council has yet to give the women permission to go ahead.

Read more about their efforts to cut through the red tape on their blog and on Twitter, and find further information, including a list of participating artists, on the website.

Every so often, the Serpentine Gallery snags itself a truly interesting artist. The last one was Anthony McCall in late 2007/early 2008, whose beams of solid light shot across the dark interior as if from a film projector.

This spring, Rebecca Warren is set to draw in the crowds with her clay sculptures of naked bodies. The londonpaper today accurately described them as “lusty”. Warren depict women’s bodies as if she were a Viz cartoonist. Our attention is always drawn to particular areas (usually the boobs, or bum).

Rebecca Warren: Helmut Crumb (1998)

Parallels to Degas (Little Dancer Aged 14) are easily drawn, but Warren takes the tradition of sculpting the body and turns it on its head. Her clay is always rough and sharp, removing the smooth sensuality associated with marble and bronze sculptures. They are sexy, but they do not idolise.

Recently, Charlotte Roche’s book Wetlands caused a furore because it explains, in some detail, one woman’s experience with sex, and with having hemorrhoids. Warren’s sculptures tap into this (shocking) idea of treating women as normal, sexual beings.

Tate Britain’s fourth triennial, Altermodern: Tate Triennial 2009, opens tomorrow in London. Curator Nicolas Bourriaud coined the phrase altermodern (alternative+modern) to describe a new, global approach to art. He says modernism and postmodernism were Western movements, for the most part, and today’s artists are more aware of their place in a globalised culture. The triennial covers four themes: Altermodern; Exiles; Travelling and Borders.

In this video, Bourriaud introduces himself and the thinking behind the exhibition:

See also:

“London Art: Altermodernism’s purveyors claim it will lead to a New World Order” by Jessica Holland in the londonpaper.

Brad Downey‘s first solo show, “An Honest Thief”, opened at the StolenSpace Gallery in Dray Walk, east London, on Thursday. Downey uses film, sculpture, painting and drawing to interpret the urban landscape. On one wall of the gallery is Animals That Crossed (2007 – current), a series of animals skins, spread out like miniature rugs or arty roadkill.

The B in Brad (2007)

StolenSpace

Animals That Crossed (2007 – current)

Continuing the road theme, The B in Brad (2007) dominates the room. According to the artist, this sculpture of signs represents the “multitudes of signals and systems that govern our cities and imperceptibly determine our everyday movement”.

Downey was named as one of the ArtReview 25 MA graduates to watch in 2005.

The first solo show of sculptor Amaia Allende, “Out of Sorts”, opened last week at the Tatty Devine boutique and gallery space in Brick Lane, east London. Allende claims to tackle the “subject of belonging” by assembling similar everyday items into tidy rows. By the front door, some sort of green pear-like fruits line up on a narrow shelf. Poking out of the top are long strands of polyester blond hair, which make them look like a family of Mrs Pear Heads. So they belong together, you see, while at the same time having individual personalities (because of the hair).

Rows of fish heads preserved in salt peer out from a long black board mounted on the gallery wall like hunting trophies. Next to them, cast copies of ripe oranges burrow into blocks of dark red velvet, as if victims of a bloody fruit massacre. It looks suspiciously like she has emptied her kitchen bin around the shop.

When John William Waterhouse’s 1896 painting was taken off the walls of Manchester Art Gallery, furious critics described it as censorship or a publicity stunt. That couldn’t be further from the truth, says the artist at the centre of the stormWhen John William Waterhouse’s painting Hylas and the Nymphs was removed from the walls of the Manchester Art Galler […]